A U.S. stealth drone that crashed in Iran last week was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission which involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN Tuesday.

A senior U.S. official with direct access to the assessment about what happened to the drone said it was tasked to fly over western Afghanistan and look for insurgent activity, with no directive to either fly into Iran or spy on Iran from Afghan airspace.

A U.S. satellite quickly pinpointed the downed drone, which apparently sustained significant damage, the senior official said.
"The Iranians have a pile of rubble and are trying to figure what they have and what to do with it," the senior U.S. official said. The drone crashed solely because its guidance system failed, the official said.

Officials confirmed to CNN it was an RQ-170 drone that was lost.

Another U.S. official confirmed that when the drone crashed, the United States briefly considered all potential options for retrieving the aircraft or bombing the wreckage, but those ideas were quickly discarded as impractical.

The officials have direct knowledge of the events, but spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence matters. CIA officials have declined to comment.

Indications of the intelligence community's involvement in the drone incident emerged over the weekend, when NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan issued a statement saying, "The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."

Several coalition officials said at the time they had no direct knowledge of the incident and they were essentially ordered to put out this statement. It's significant that the statement only says "operators" of the UAV, without saying which part of the military or U.S. government might have been operating it, one coalition official said.

U.S. officials are discounting the Iranian claim that they shot the drone down. The United States continues to say the crew of the UAV lost flight control and the drone then entered Iranian airspace.

American officials over the years have been adamant that U.S. assets do not fly over Iranian air space.

The RQ-170 Sentinel is a stealth drone developed by Lockheed Martin for the Air Force to help provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Iranian media reported that the RQ-170 was slightly damaged and in the hands of Iranian forces.

"Armed forces with a dominant control over the country's borders managed to identify and down the invading plane," reported Iran's official news agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency.

An unnamed Iranian military official called it a "clear example of aggression" and added that Iran is "fully ready to counter any aggression," the report said.

In July, Iran's military made a similar claim, saying it downed a U.S. "spy drone" flying near its Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province. But Iran backtracked on the statement a few days later, saying the incident was actually part of a training exercise.

soundoff(434 Responses)

Mark

I can't continue to read the slew of responses to see if any of this was already answered, but I can tell you the United States has no desire to lose an expensive piece of equipment (both in cost and intelligence value) to Iran to "bait" them. Knowing how electronics can fail at any moment, (hell, SATELLITES bust orbit and crash!), it is most plausible that the operator DID lose control of the vehicle. Might Iran have shot at it as it was out of control? Absolutely! Might they have thought they hit it, or did hit it in its downward spiral? Sure, but it doesn't mean the hit CAUSED it to come down. It's kind of like shooting a duck with a busted wing. Not much sport to it. Since when is spying a new thing? Why do so many disbelieve that we are also being spied on? Superiority complex? Just because we added a new piece to the chess board doesn't mean all of a sudden we're the evil empire, nor does it mean the people we spy on are evil either. It simply means we have a vested interest in knowing what's going on because some of the leadership is a little unorthodox by our standards. I wouldn't be so bold as to blame an entire country for their leadership's failure to represent the people. Or haven't we already seen enough coups and political unrest in other countries?

I think it prudent to remind or inform everyone that stopping nuclear proliferation is not about nuclear bombs. When the Russians created the Tsar bomb, the accidently discovered Torsion fields which as I understand it are the fundamental force of reality as we know it.
Nuclear detoations are uncontrolled uses of Torsion Field Energy that can rip a hole in the fabric of space itself. While not understanding th whole of it, I understand the problem is a lot bigger then a few big bombs blowing everything up.

What I left is not taught in school Mr. Physics Grad. I trust you will do your own research to verify the authenticity of my statement. What did you learn at all about Torsion fields.... nothing ... yeah that's what I thought.

December 6, 2011 at 4:18 pm |

Corung

I said that to say, once you understand the stakes in the game, I trust that the players are following an agenda that is on track and .... well things are going as planned.

You really would think that the intelligence community would require a "self destruct" charge in high-technology drones flown over hostile territory to eliminate any possibility of secrets falling into "undesirable" hands...Can't be that difficult, NASA has it on their launch vehicles to prevent them from crashing to earth...

THANK YOU! Thanks, Barry, for giving the Iranians our most TOP SECRET drone of all time. But of course, you wont take credit for THAT one, will you. Only the good things that you thought you did, like killing Osama, etc. The bottom line is that this thing never should have been there in the first place, and Barry gave it away for NOTHING...

We gave the U.S.S.R. a U-2, and Both Russia and China got pieces of a F-117, and China at least got part of that stealth Helicopter...and don't forget Stalin got a couple B-29 and build the TU-4...but it took years and by then we were way ahead of them

If you think this was the best we got then that is sad if this was our best drone 1 it would not been doing the mission they said it was on 2 it would of been bombed at the very least and 3 we probblly would hear it was a weather balloon they got cuz what left of it would not look like a drone, and really blaming one guy for this i mean im not a Obama fan but if you really think he to blame for a faulty pice of hardware then you really don't understand much about the gov

Yeah we "lost" control, or it got "shot down" specially the latest and greatest drone out there. If you asked me this might have been done on purpose. There is always a bigger plan behind this "disastrous" incident to national security. Either this plane is carrying something that is going to send data back to us and let us know for sure whether Iran is creating a nuclear weapon, or we lost the plane on purpose to pay some debt to the chinese, this way it would not have been suspicious to the public and the media. We dont just send our best of the best stuff if we have the slightest chance that we are going to "loose" it.

I have no problem when, via operators, machines battle other machines for technical supremacy of the planet. It's when men, women, and children start getting killed that it takes all the fun right out of it. Unless you're some kind of sadistic mofo.

Drones have always had the risk of being shot down because they are slow moving. So, even if the Iranians shot it down, I wouldn't pat the back of the Iranian military.

Why we don't have some sort of self-destruct option on these drones is beyond me. I would assume that some basic explosive material around the important sections of the drone would make sense. This way, if control of the drone is lost, we could send a signal using some other means and destroy the drone to prevent the Chinese or Iranians from reverse engineering the aircraft.

OH hell Truth that one is so easy to answer an toddler could answer it. The self destruct becomes activated either at the instant or within a specified time after control and contact is lost.

December 6, 2011 at 4:09 pm |

John

I think he must have meant partial loss of avionics control only, but, yeah, it seems that total loss of communication is much more likely. Even in the partial loss senario, you've got to be careful that there aren't any children around if the drone goes down in a village. Because you run the risk of taking innocent life.

December 6, 2011 at 4:01 pm |

Roy

If control to the drone is lot, how would you expect us to have the ability to detonate it….idiot.

Give yourself a 1000 lashes for idiocy yourself Truth, as I said the self destruct would activate at the instant or within a specified time limit after control is lost.

Amazing how many people think Iran is capable of building a nuclear bomb but isnt able to shoot down a drone. A drone that was built in the first place so our pilots would not be in danger of being shot down.

No big deal. This is the reason for the development of unmanned drones. It is a low risk, high reward technology that the Iranians will be unable to replicate for another two generations. They only recently developed the flying boat. Yes, the flying boat. Essentially an airboat with wings.

Best chance if they actually shot it they probblly weren't aiming at or knew it was there just a lucky shot

December 7, 2011 at 4:02 am |

Quietman

For those commentors who are obsessing over the the fact that this drone entered into Iran's airspace and then crashed, keep in mind that these drones are designed to stay airborne for long periods. It could be that this drone was east on the Afgan-Pakistan border when comms were lost and, after a period of time, flew into Iranian airspace. Remember the Payne Stewart Leer jet crash in 1999 . . .maybe you weren't born yet.

Historically Europe set the precedence hence all the break away "colonies". Two i am pretty sure we dont wet our pants when attacked perhaps you may remember Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Also we kinda like to come to peoples aid when they need our help like during WW1 WW2 Korea national diasters in places like Haiti, Japan, etc etc

December 6, 2011 at 5:41 pm |

Mike84

Lol if you guys think thats the best we got then i dare you to try and fly your stuff over here it won't be it off the landing pad before we know its coming then it will be gone. Also if you think that a model of drone which was probblly our best in the late 90s is our biggest mistake since the cold war then thats not so bad. If thinking we are dwlinding power makes you and yours sleep better better at night then by all means keep living in your fantasy world cuz we still got plenty of surpises for you.

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No big deal. This is the reason for the development of unmanned drones. It is a low risk, high reward technology that the Iranians will be unable to replicate for another two generations. They only recently developed the flying boat. Yes, the flying boat. Essentially an airboat with wings.

December 6, 2011 at 3:26 pm |

J-Man

Don't be stupid. We are the most powerful country on the planet. It is in our best interest to know what is going on in this evil country (Iran). If other countries did the same to us, I suspect that we would consider it agressive and have to start taking out their leaders.

Wake up and smell the coffee. You are no longer the most powerful nation on the planet. That's why you never tackle Russia or China head on!

December 6, 2011 at 3:40 pm |

dave836

Lol. Russia is far from the most powerful due to their poverty and China just has a lot of people. We would easily take them down if a war broke out. Don't believe what the media tells you. US is far from leaving the top of the pyramid.

December 6, 2011 at 3:44 pm |

Leroy

We're not the most powerful anymore; China and India will soon catch up with us. This flying drones around other peoples' countries really needs to stop; it's an act of agression that shouldn't be legal.

December 6, 2011 at 3:45 pm |

Believer

Maybe the US WANTED to have it fall into the hands of the Iranians because it has spy equipment on it and we are actually spying on them via the downed drone... you know they took it to their most secret base and now we are targeting that base and following the exchange of secret info abou the drone...it was probably last year's iDrone 3G anyway...

Good point....I think it had the latest version of Carrier IQ's software, which we are now seeing every letter typed, every word spoken in the secret labs of Iran. Come on people, get off your blogging high horses and have a little fun....

Nonsense. The RQ-170 is well-equipped with numerous electronic countermeasures to avoid absolutely any surface-to-air capacity that Iran has at its disposal. The primary mission of that drone was to penetrate Iranian space, be shot down and retrieved by Iranian forces.

Every deployment under directive of the CIA is carefully planned and strategically calculated well in advance. These drones don't simply go wandering into potentially hostile airspace and are certainly not as vulnerable to attack as is being suggested in this case. The type of stealth and virtually non-existent signature of these aircraft make it virtually impossible for their azimuth sector to be pin-pointed to the extent that a missile could obtain an intercept vector.

Whatever is on that drone is what the CIA intended for Iran to have in their possession.

You are deluded. The CIA can barely do anything right, yet you've granted them nearly supernatural technological powers. The CIA are anything but gods - they are a bunch of people who make a bunch of mistakes. If they and our military had such overwhelming superiority, we wouldn't still be in Afghanistan, Iran wouldn't have nuclear weapons, Kadaffi and Bin Laden would have been dead a decade ago, etc., etc.

Dude, mission can go bad, especially when the only tool involved is technology/ I hardly believe this was shot down ... though it's not impossible, ... remember the A-117 shot down over Serbia? It was shot down by one (yes one) simple cannon bullet, not even an explosive shell, just a dumb bullet. So, it could well be the same and for what we know, it could well have been flying low above ground to avoid radar and gather better intelligence and so be in the range of conventional weapon. You just need a lucky anti aircraft guy looking over the right mountain range at the right moment.
I used to be a radar man, and that's how I was to shot down (in exercise of course) a supersonic jet fighter, who thought to be able to surprise our anti aircraft position by flying fast and low over the mountain range.
Too bad when it came onto us, I was just looking in that direction with my visor ... I got very lucky, pulled the trigger and super fast super duper jet was no more (electronically, I didn't kill anybody) . It is very possible.
In the end, technology is great but a closer look is always better, riskier but better, so it is conceivable that the drone was shot down. There was a decision not to retrieve it (asking for troubles?) ... kidding me? You don't give your adversary an excuse to say justify a UN resolution. Yes, entering Iranian airspace to recover hardware is an act of war.
Unfair, ... get over it, that's what it is. No, not every mission goes as carefully as it was planned. How high tech the drone was ... from the price tag, it was high tech enough ... and you and me sure have no clue or no way to know anyway.
So, yes, in this one, Iran 1, US 0 ... of course, it's just a drone, every mission has some risk

The stealth tech is advanced but likely still within the Russian satellites' capability to detect the drone by its heat signature. All Russia would need to do is wait until the craft is at a point in its flight where it's headed in the direction of Iran, and then nail it with a HERF beam from their ship in the gulf. High Energy RF weapons are typically narrow beams of microwave, i.e powerful RADAR beams which will disrupt all but the most hardened electronics, and can be used against cruise missiles.

Always love the comments on this type of story – half the people think the CIA is capable of anything they can imagine, and the other half think the CIA is a bunch of bumbling idiots. Would be nice to see some realism on both sides!

If the Taliban were able to hack into our drones through Google last summer (funny how short memories are on these blogs) to gain insight of our troops logistics, is it that hard to believe an actual government could do the same?

So it was not in Iran yet it crashed on Iranian Soil? I do understand things in uncontrolled freefall can end up in odd places but I find it hard to beleive we used a STEALTH drone for recon if we intended to stay in friendly airspace for the full term of the mission.

Is it just me or does out government actually think we are that stupid?

You're probably right. Question is, was losing the drone intentional or unintentional. It might be a way of "giving" the Iranians fake information with regard to the drones capabilities or even design. There may even be some electronic data on the drone that would intentionally mislead the Iranians. Deception is part of the game...including the leak about contemplating destroying it before the Iranians could recover it. Then again...maybe it was unintentional after all.

Iran could do anythink with it because it was all written in a forgien laguage after all it says MADE IN CHINA

December 6, 2011 at 3:56 pm |

Matty13

These drones are programed that if they loose comms for any period of time they look for a flat space and land. Then a repeater goes on to either go get it or destroy it. The nearest flat space was Iran and they knew where it was. BUT going in to get it is dangerous to get caught there. Sending in a missile to blow it up is also dangerous on someone elses soil. They had to let it go...they had to let it be grabbed.

Iranian intelligence "The drone has been safely recovered and fitted with a 2 megaton nuclear warhead. It will be remotely guided from an undisclosed Iranian airbase to the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans during the BCS National Championship Game between SEC rivalries LSU and Alabama. Allah Akbar, Oklahoma State Akbar."

Maybe russia,have you done homework on china? Their first aircraft carrier was just made(With A pride lip lol) US has airborne air craft carrier,swans,etc. ____still doesn't matter. Wait for Hu Jintou to resign then speak tech.

Im just saying the only way military equiptment is built by there own for a reason,on the other hand it can be german designed or who knows,like nasa apollo early missions. But built for war, not by non ally

December 6, 2011 at 3:04 pm |

Roofus

Why don't we equip hi-tech equipment like this drone with explosives which can be detinated should the item fall into the wrong hands? Seems quite simple to me. The terrorist crazies have been using remote detination for years. The thing goes down, we located it through satelite technology, we blow it up before anyone else reaches it!!!

So let me see if I've got this straight. We sent a drone mission over Iran because we think they don't like us and they're out to develop high-tech weaponry. Drone crashes. Now, they have a sample of our high-tech weaponry to reverse engineer and possibly use against us, and ideal propoganda with which to fuel anti-American sentiments and recruit terrorists.

First of all the drone crashed inside iranian border which means they lied in this article about drone gathering intel from afghanistan. Second, the sole reason they are not telling location of the crash is it was deep inside Iran and not somewhere around the border regions as they would like you to believe. CIA just keeps changing story i knew from beginning the official narration was a lie, I can't believe we would stoop this low just to appease jew parasites. USA used to stand up for something and now its a jewstooge nation with no integrity or honor. W.E happened to USA

When I worked on the defense side of aerospace, there wasn't a lot of hardware that was classified. Not saying none, but not a lot. Software, however was another matter. There was a function that ran, a big switch in cockpit of the manned vehicles, that would wipe clean all software of any use, including any mission data. Gotta imagine unmanned spy drones have the same functionality on some sort of auto-run basis. Hardware, not too sure how much on this particular vehicle is classified, but all they will get out of it is performance and materials composition information, stuff that probably isnt too hard to determine from pictures anyways. Either way, without software, that plane is just a big hunk of metal and spare parts.

You mean like referencing a Janes publication or reference book where just about any and all types of weapons are cataloged with their respective technologies and manufacturers? janes*com/products/janes/defence/

One problem with using drones at the border is that even if we see a group of 10 illegals, how many can we catch? If we are not willing to shoot and kill women and children we would have a hard time stopping them. I hope that noone wants to do that.

I live in the Rio Grande Valley area and the drones (unarmed) are used in a support role. They acquire and identify the 'target' and black hawks and ground personnel move in to capture the illegals. As a private pilot sometimes I can see the their activities from the air. Every night is the same.

December 6, 2011 at 3:16 pm |

Sassan

Why didn't they bomb and destroy it before the Islamic Republic hooligans got a hold of it?

If Iran wants to be a major nuclear power it better get used to being spied on and targeted with ICBMs. At the height of the cold war we had a nuclear arsonal with the explosive equivalant of well over 400 tons of TNT per Iranian. We grew up with mutually assured distruction and now Iran wants to play. Welcome to the big leagues.

December 6, 2011 at 2:54 pm |

Wayne

Maybe it's planned. Seeded with false technology or even a virus, knowing exploration will be irresistible.

The first article said that the air force was in charge, this article admits it was the CIA who was in charge... to answer your question these articles have ZERO credibility.

Next article will tell the truth and acknowledge that the plane did not crash or was shoot down instead it was hacked their flight systems taken over by the Iranians and made to land safely inside Iran.

interesting people with top secret clearance working on a program and talking to the media. apparently they need to be fired as a reminder to all what a clearance means and they are not at liberty to talk to anyone.

Well, at least they admitted it was the CIA. However the drone did not crash, it was hacked and it's flight systems taken over by Iran's operatives which in turn landed it safely at some site inside Iran. This was reported by other news sites before the pentagon started to feed false information to other news outlets.

Poor dumb id**t People like you who don't plan for the future or for a worst case scenario are responsible for all the 'accidents' or 'oops' moments. What the heck the drone uses an unsecured down link that can be easily hacked... what's the worst that can happen?

Put down your smart phone, go back to school and learn something useful.

December 6, 2011 at 2:42 pm |

tucson jim

The drone uses a minimum of AES 256 encryption across its data streams, it also runs on encrypted drives that wipe themselves after each run. Right now it's a pile of metal that serves no purpose and helps no one. Calm down and find another conspiracy to work on you mental midget.

December 6, 2011 at 2:51 pm |

svann

Fairly easy to google it tucson:
"an Iranian military official quoted on Iranian state television claimed that an Iranian military cyber-warfare unit "managed to take over controls of the drone and bring it down,"

The Iranians got it in one way or another that is the fact, now they have access to our (Chinese) technology.

December 6, 2011 at 2:46 pm |

svann

How on earth can you believe that Iran has the capability to build a nuclear bomb but isnt able to hack?

December 6, 2011 at 2:53 pm |

nes718

Why not? All that controls these things are radio signals. The base station is far away and all Iran had to do was record the signal and the rebroadcast it out of sequence with higher wattage from a source closer to the plane thereby jamming the remote signal. Who care about encryption? Just record the signals and play them back and the plan is yours. No hacking involved.

It simply amazes me how dumb some Americans can be that they are blinded by their own pride and can't conceive of a country like Iran might have the know-how to get the job done. They are not stupid people over there and there is going to be hell to pay once the US and Israel move in for the attack. That will be a sad day but we'll see how much of the carrier fleet is left when that happens.

December 6, 2011 at 3:42 pm |

george

According to Iranian intelligence "The drone has been safely recovered and fitted with a 2 megaton nuclear warhead. It will be remotely guided from an undisclosed Iranian airbase to the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans during the BCS National Championship Game between SEC rivalries LSU and Alabama. Allah Akbar, Oklahoma State Akbar."

It is fairly common for other nations (with the capability) to try and obtain information via satellite or reconnaissance aircraft. The Russians and Chinese both do this with their neighbors and even us. What the aircraft was doing isn't illegal.

Well Jom Bob, let's see what the big O has done since his time in office, how about increased the deficit from 8 trillion to 16 trillion, and 800 billion for a stimulus package that was supposed to create jobs, cash for clunkers, that really worked, ObamaCare will put all the private providers out of business, how about sending troops to Libya without the approval of Congress, the list goes on and on, your Messiah is as smart as a box of rocks! He said in press interviews he was going to visit all 57 states, and how about calling Navy Core-men corpse-men as in corpses not once but 3 time in the same speech! Any body would be better than O!!!

You conveniently forgot to mention that Obama was stuck with the tax breaks that Bush had in place so the top earners could create all those jobs that were promised. 2 unfunded wars + tax breaks for rich + horrible economy = deficit

Thanks Bush and Republicans who refuse to return their ill gotten tax gains

Let' see, Obama said he would bring the troops home ASAP and close Guantanomo. Well were are still fighting two wars and almost 3/4 of his term gone before we are bringing our troops home from Iraq and that was because they didn't want us there anymore. Obama would have kept them there longer if not. No plans of closing Guantanomo. The heath care is a joke. Let's see, all Obama care has got me is my heath care insurance premium doubled and my benifits are half what they were before he passed that stupid bill. All Obama runs on is putting the blame on everyone elses mistakes instead of just manning up and saying he doesn't know he is doing. I don't care who's fault it is, Republican or Democrats. They need to quit blaming each other, get off their lazy butts and fix it. If I can't do my job I would get fired, same needs to be for them also. Term limits would be a positive step for Congress and they should get the same health benifits as the rest of the U.S. citizens compliments of good old Obama Care.

December 6, 2011 at 3:05 pm |

thatlldoelephant

why don't you just post a link to fox news? It would save you some considerable time. Or do you like to pretend your comments are your own original creation, in addition to pretending that they're legit?

Did you even complete Jr. high school? If you did you must get all your news from Fox. Because you are a low information voter. Ignorant of the facts and biased against the democratic party. It was the republican party who sunk this country into the economic mess Obama is trying to dig us out of. For the last 30+ years the GOP has run deficits. Kicked the can of economic responsibility down the road. Why? Because they knew they wouldn't be in office when the bills came due and could then blame the "other guy". BS. Pure BS.
Oh!, do you know how many states there are? And the territories controlled by the US? That would be 57. Maybe you are the one who needs to learn something.

Why do the talking points never change? The government is succeeding in its only real goal, make people so sick and tired that we just don't pay attention any more, instead acting like parrots and thinking we are saving this country with all our rhetoric, when in fact we are facilitating its demise as level headed people check out.

I think perhaps its time that we all admit that both sides are at fault here. Nobody agrees anymore and the candidates are walking on egg shells to try to get voted in, and then they discover the imposibilty of the situation, created by a mutually uncooperative group. even the "supercommittee" was at a loss to create a bipartisan solution. to be honest, unless something truely drastic occurs from someone willing to be the parriah that is needed, we are destined to relegate ourselves to mediocrity and debt. i hate to say it, but the only real solution to the national debt would be massive and rather painful cuts in nearly all of the government's social programs. while such things are nice to have, we simply cant afford them, and it is hurting us as a nation. times will be rough, and whoever enacts it, no matter how dire the circumstances, will be hated for it. it is rather unfortunate, but the safest solution in lieu of revolution, but i dont think that will be a necissary step.

I think I will go with Iran's version – they have more credibility to me than the US. Especially when we are talking about CIA involvement. The Americans tried to sell the world a similar story when the U2 spy plane was shot down over Russia in the 50's – "It was a NASA weather research flight that had flown off course".

Because Canada would become Western Iran quite passively after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police failed to stop an invasion.

December 6, 2011 at 2:48 pm |

PacerLJ35

Having worked around UAVs in the past, they can and do lose link (ie the ground station loses control of the aircraft). There are safeguards in place but it's not a perfect world and murphy often directs a different outcome. The idea that the Iranians managed to "hack" the aircraft and then fly it to the ground is pretty far-fetched.

You believe Iran more than you do the U.S. because you are from Canada, and you have an inferiority complex and a chip on your shoulder. It's nice not to have any expectations from the rest of the globe to serve as a protector against madmen like those running Iran's government, and to sit back and criticize the U.S. when it is called on to act.

You are essentially the Texas A&M of North America. You should go find another conference.

"The officials said they did not believe the mission involved flying the drone directly over Iran because the reconnaissance capability of the-RQ 170 drone allows it to gather information from inside Iran while remaining on the Afghanistan side of the border."

well its obvious they were NOT flying around iranian border otherwise they would tell the location of the crash. but they are not telling location of the crash because it was deep inside iranian territory and it would clearly contradict what they said earlier. thats why they are not telling where it crashed. u thought people are that stupid to fall for cheap bs like that?

are you saying this thing does not have a self-destruct mechanism if it does not hear from someone. Oh Man! The drone is what separates us from everybody else. Now the Russians will have it, the Chinese will have it, The North Koreans will have it, and the Iranians are going to have anything they want. I think we should call this thing to find out where it is and send another one with a self-destruct mechanism and Ka-boum it into oblivion with everybody around it. The Company messed up big time.

Instead of designing their own military equipment, the so-called emerging superpowers are busy copying, or seeking opportunities to copy the American technology. That's why America will always be the leader no matter the magnitude of economic crisis they encounter.

It is interesting to me that the US military sometimes has things (components of military craft) manufactured outside of the country. Where the host country just copies it and sells it off to other countries. For example, I know this as a fact for submarine screws (propellars). What components are being made in the US? However it is very interesting that other countries "copy" because it takes less R&D time.

I wonder how you all would feel if America had the backbone and Americans maintained the balls they did before..children on a playground have more guts than we adults these days...someone picks on them,they kick thier butt. We (Americans) used to be like that. No matter who got us into what war, we as Americans should stand AS ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISABLE and prevail with JUSTICE FOR ALL(AMERICANS). As for our financial situation, teach your children to work for the things that they want, they are not owed a home,education,car...my tax money!
moral; the pursute of happiness, some times means kicking a little ass and putting forth a bit of effort to work your way thru life.

Do you really need reasons to go to war with Iran, because I can give you several. ... But you are completely missing the point of her post. Explaining it further would be pointless.

December 6, 2011 at 2:19 pm |

newmadrid

Reverse engineering is not a major concern with Iran. Considering they tried converting an old iHawk SAM to an air to air missile by straping it under the wing of an F-4, it shows they are not that advanced. They blew the wing off the F-4 when it launched. Idiots.

Because Iran is a backward nation. Under their Islamic law, they don't perform routine maintenance on their aircraft. If it breaks, it's Allahs will that it breaks. They are morons. All the technology they posses is bought from other countries. They will most likely destroy the drone in attempting to figure out how it works, then try to sell the broken pieces to the highest bidder.

December 6, 2011 at 2:39 pm |

Jeff

Wow, what a bunch of bafoons posting.
Does anyone here work in the defense industry??? I'm going to say no.
It will take a stroke of luck to get any data out of this drone. There is protection up the wazoo on the electronics and data.

You all speak out of ingorance and fear. The big bad military, the scary CIA all idiots.
And to think, us vets protect you....very sad to have a nation full of idiots.

True what you say BUT it's also a falsehood to say that it's not a fiasco that this thing was lost inside Iran. This UAV may not yield data, but it will reveal capabilities that the Iranians will absorb. Honestly it's not like the helicopter parts being inspected and given to China when Osama was killed in Pakistan (much proprietary info was unveiled in that accident) but this lost UAV isn't simple a 'whatever' thing either

Think about it folks.... if the mission was truly being flown on the AFG side of the border why would you use one of the most classified (so much so that photos have not been published) UAVs we have especially with all the low observable technology when you could just hang the sensor package on a King Air or something like it. If it could snoop from the AFG side, the only reason to use a stealthy aircraft is to keep the Iranians from turning off their key sensors like they do when their radar detects a Global Hawk or something else. Truth is it was a monumental screw up to have it "lose contact". Lets be serious though again and consider that if the UAV could be programmed to find a flat surface and land after losing contact for a certain amount of time then it could just as easily be programmed to return to a friendly airbase and land rather than flying on into enemy territory with our most advanced secrets. Someone either seriously screwed up or the UAV is right where we wanted it to be. The gain that we expect from its loss has to outweigh the loss itself if it is the latter.

We are spying on Iran. We still have an embassy there for the purpose. You guys don't but you have 100K troops right next door to make up for that. Our troops were also stationed in the south of Afghanistan near Pakistan and not near the Iran border. Now our remaining troops have moved to Kabul I believe.

If Iran were to drop a nuke on my little piece of Canada (which would be a decent target being home to our Pacific fleet) it would land just as close to Seattle as it would to Vancouver.

That's ok all you Obamanites!! Pound your little liberal fists on the table and keep blaming the repubs. Remember Obama said he would use more Drones than boots on the ground and it's all part of his ploy to get us all killed. Don't bitch when your back yard is nuked! Oh. I'm sure you'll blame that on Bush too. Unfortunately you have no brain with which to reason or look at history with. We have sat back for years and hoped that these whackos would just leave us alone. THEY WILL NEVER leave us alone and likewise we should not rest or let them have peace either.

REALLY??? Obama has been as hawkish as and 'repub' of late. You clearly are so blinded by his being black and a Dem, that you can't see how he's not only continued the practices of Bush, but actually raised the ante! I thought giving the order would calm nutcases like you down about him a bit, but the guy couldn't get approval from a fanatic like you if he wore a superhero suit with USA on his chest and personally fly out and defeated all our 'enemies' alone. Sheesh!!

Hey Michael Fury, nobody wants to read your blog. No one cares what you think, no one cares for your terrible satire or opinions. Stop promoting it and get back to work behind the fry-o-later before your boss fires you for burning the fries.

Just how naive are you?? EVERY country sticks their noses into other countries' rear-ends.

December 6, 2011 at 3:24 pm |

unome

HEY LOOK ITS A BOX, WITH ALL MY LATEST TECH IN IT! OOPS I DROPPED IT! HOW WILL I EVER GET ALL MY SECRETS BACK IN THE BOX.....yeah right... I don't think our military is that dumb, if they were smart they would fedex it back to the cia..

It would not be an unarmed drone if it was armed with C4 people. Not to mention they lost contact with the plane. So how would the plane be able to know to self destruct. if it used its own calculations, whats to keep it from self destructing anywhere. Not to mention if it was surrounded by hundreds of Iranian civilians and then self destructed. Be certain that there are secure encryption methods for anyone to access the drone itself, therefore reusing it is highly unlikely. The only thing they can do is reverse engineer the technology to gain knowledge for building their own drones.

This is probably just a misinformation project, like some of the ones the brits pulled against the nazis in WW 2. The lost drone today is akin to the fake dead british military courier with a briefcase full of fake secrets in WW 2.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the plane is now in the possession of Iran's armed forces. It said the drone had been brought down by a virtual attack from Iran's cyberwarfare unit, after taking control of it. Only the morons in the USA military would think they can fly drones using un-encrypted codes. If I recall, in a previous story, the Taliban claimed they while they could not hijack a drone, they could see the directions being given to drones and thereby avoid them. And now a report that the location of the drone was known but no attempt was made to retrieve it or destroy it. $Billions of top secret high tech R&D and now the Iranians have it and will sell the technology to the Chinese and Russians. It should have been retrieved or destroyed!! IDIOTS!! Whoever made the decision to let the drone fall into the hands of the Iranians should be dismissed from the military/CIA!!

What a disaster. It's really disturbing to think that someone could break into the code and take over directing the thing. I hope that's not the case. Yet how could our directions be so flawed that we could crash it ourselves? I had been hoping that a fully loaded drone would just wander over to the Iran nuclear facilities and blow them up. We could say, "Oh so sorry, we lost control of our drone."

Would be nice to have the drone blow up in some secret technology center, but that would require an imagination and forward strategic thinking... something that our CIA and military brass can't seem to do.

I'll be interested to see, after Obama serves his second term, how much vacation time he took – vs. your savior, Dubya the dunce. You remember – the guy that, along with your other savior Cheney, lied us into two wars, cost thousands of American lives, destroyed the international image of America, and put us into the worst financial shape since the depression? Oh. Sorry. This is a longer piece of information than you're used to. Faux news tends to cater to your fourth-grade education level. Run along now, let the adults talk!

Only you libs think Bush was anyones savior. We had problems with him as well. Difference is we admit we did while you libs are incapable of admitting that the big O (not Oprah) has many faults and has done more to damage America's reputation that anyone. Countries respect you they leave you alone and listen when you speak. Bowing to a few world leaders has given us a rep of being a pansy nation and not even the Iranians respect us anymore. BTW Fear and respect equal peace.

December 6, 2011 at 1:38 pm |

Bob

Bush did not lie us into wars and did not destroy our international image. The immediate cause behind the financial meltdown was morgage policies favored much more by liberals than by conservatives.

December 6, 2011 at 1:54 pm |

Anexx

Well Jom Bob, let's see what the big O has done since his time in office, how about increased the deficit from 8 trillion to 16 trillion, and 800 billion for a stimulus package that was supposed to create jobs, cash for clunkers, that really worked, ObamaCare will put all the private providers out of business, how about sending troops to Libya without the approval of Congress, the list goes on and on, your Messiah is as smart as a box of rocks! He said in press interviews he was going to visit all 57 states, and how about calling Navy Core-men corpse-men as in corpses not once but 3 time in the same speech! Any body would be better than O!!!

December 6, 2011 at 2:01 pm |

Wes

No big deal, we can build plenty more, and a lot more "stuff" that is yet to be used against them and us. Remember it's Christmas time.

Just two months ago the drone program consoles were infected with a keylogging program.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/
Now Iran is claiming they were able to "take control" of the drone and land it.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2016936391_iran05.html

We act like this is normal bahavior. Yet, if the Chinese, Russians or Iranians were flying drones along our southern border in Mexican airspace to gather info on the US, our government and press would be screaming for full-scale invasions of both countries. How about we just mind our own business instead of getting in the middle of everyone else's squabbles?

When has the US ever practiced isolationism? We're constantly meddling in the affairs of others, then stupidly wonder why so many countries hate us, why terrorists want to attack us, etc. It's not that hard. MYOB.

December 6, 2011 at 1:17 pm |

Mike

World War II for one. We sat back and ignored what was happening in Europe, and even worse, ignored Japanese expansion in Asia. The result? Well, tomorrow is Pearl Harbor Day. At the time, the "America First" contingent was leading the charge for isolationism.

December 6, 2011 at 1:23 pm |

James PDX

WWII would be a good example of US isolationism. Or did that little conflict escape your little brain?

December 6, 2011 at 1:24 pm |

Douglas

As opposed to the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan that have gone so well?

December 6, 2011 at 1:31 pm |

SSS

Ever heard of WWII? How soon you forget. Never forget! 85 year old Vets still with their faculties can answer this one for you Nate.

December 6, 2011 at 1:34 pm |

Chris

How was putting sanctions on Germany after WWI being isolationist? Seems keeping Germany down led to a tyrant such as Hitler to rise to power. The League of Nations did such a good job at that.

Lets put more sanctions on Iran and other countries we don't like, then wonder why tyrants like Hitler rise to power.

December 6, 2011 at 1:38 pm |

Mike

The experiences in Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan merely demonstrate you should only fight the good fights- not isolationism.

December 6, 2011 at 1:39 pm |

Nate

Where did I advocate isolationism? I'm simply saying we should stay out of fights that don't concern us. That's what this is.

Oh, and SSS, I'm a former Marine, so the "ask a vet" argument isn't gonna work on me. You'd be surprised how many current and former military folks think our foreign policy is ridiculous. Probably a side-effect of seeing it in action first-hand.

December 6, 2011 at 1:54 pm |

svann

Yea, isolationism died 70 years ago though. There hasnt been isolationism since ww2.

December 6, 2011 at 1:57 pm |

Kevininvancouver

RW – The Americans did their best to appear independent or isolationist as you put it during the first few years of both the World Wars. They prefer to stay out of the big challenging wars but love their little bully wars.

December 6, 2011 at 2:18 pm |

Natedontknowjack

What town/city do you live in Nate? So Iran can give the nuke it makes to hamas who in turn can give it to some terrorist to set off in your backyard. That's why we care about what Iran is up to smart guy.

San Diego. We managed to survive the breakup of the Soviet Union and its thousands of warheads without your scenario coming to pass. I'm sure we can handle Iran without repeating the mistakes of Afghanistan and Iraq.

December 6, 2011 at 1:47 pm |

James PDX

If Iran is making nuclear weapons while ruled by a madman and an intolerant theocracy, it's everybody's business. Not to mention that your scenario won't happen because we haven't peeved our neighbors off enough for them to allow our enemies to spy on us from their border, whereas Iran has.

I'm getting "grumpy and nonsensical" because I don't want us to waste trillions more dollars that we don't have, expend the lives of thousands more of my brothers and sisters in the military (plus significantly more Iranians) and get stuck in another drawn out war in the Middle East? I think you have the definition of nonsensical confused.

December 6, 2011 at 1:51 pm |

Matt

Maybe because Iran told repeatedly that they want to wipe another country (Isreal) of the face of the earth. If they would be a responsable country I think people would be a little less worried about them developing "nuclear energy". However them helping and funding attacts on citizens of other countries (Isreal, Lebanon) makes people a little uneasy about them having nuclear capability. By the way I am not biased towards Isreal, in my view they have no more claim to the land where they live than the palastinians however I don't believe terrorist attacks are the way of solving the problem.

Israel has hundreds of its own nukes and recieves billions in aid and military hardware from the US. So do the Saudis. If they want to fight Iran, let them do it themselves.

December 6, 2011 at 1:56 pm |

FrederickM

Let me tell you how a reasonable country acts......First it overthrows another countries democracally elected Govt( Mossadegh overthrown by our CIA In 1953 ) then it arms and supports counry A in the region with biological and chemical weapons to attack country B ( The US supported Saddam Hussein with WMDS and turned a blind eye as he used them against Iran) The reasonable country also supported country B with arms as it sold arms to Iran tu support the Contras in Nicaragua( trying to overthrow another democratically elected Govt In Nicaragua....The reasonable country cynically supports both sides.....
Remember the reasoable country is responsible for the invasions and occupations more countries around the world than all other contries combined.......The reasoble country is responsible for more deaths of innocents in the last 30 years than all other contries combined.....

December 6, 2011 at 2:04 pm |

John Tune

All of these drones can be programmed to autonomously fly back to their point of origin or self-destruct, when remote control is lost or is jammed by opposing forces.

Remember that the active tech being used on battle fields are at least a decade old. The true high tech state of the art drones are above top secret and thus the drone that Iran has pieces of is old US military surplus. Do any of you believe that the USA would even remotely risk advanced tech getting in the hands of Iran, china , and Russia? Of course not! These drones are looking for people and camps along the boarders. We don't need ultra high tech for that! Our spy satellites do the heavy work and these drones look for people and camps.

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CNN's Security Clearance examines national and global security, terrorism and intelligence, as well as the economic, military, political and diplomatic effects of it around the globe, with contributions from CNN's national security team in Washington and CNN journalists around the world.